Water quality has been a major concern in the United States and elsewhere because of its impact on people's daily lives and on the environment. There are two main sources of water pollution: point sources and non-point sources, which are differentiated based on their mode of generation. Pollution generated from point sources has been effectively controlled by the implementation of the National Pollution Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) program, under the auspices of the 1972 Clean Water Act (CWA). However, a large portion of the nation's water remains polluted, mainly due to non-point sources of pollution. The Total Maximum Daily Load (TMDL) program within the CWA regulates water pollution by controlling both point and non-point sources. Structural and non-structural Best Management Practices (BMPs) have been recognized as effective measures for controlling non-point sources of pollution. These practices are designed on an on site basis in most cases. The objective of this research is to develop methodologies that can be used to design structural BMPs as measurements for controlling non-point sources of pollution (i.e. sediment and nutrients) on a larger spatial scale, that of a watershed. The Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT), a semi-distributed model that simulates hydrological processes, has been selected for this study. The most sensitive model parameters with respect to discharge and sediment yield are identified by a parameter sensitivity analysis. Latin Hypercube Sampling One-at-a-time (LH-OAT), a global sensitivity analysis method, has been adopted for this purpose. SWAT has been calibrated by using these parameters to accurately simulate runoff and sediment yields from the watershed. An automatic calibration model using a genetic algorithm that optimizes the parameter values has been used. In addition, an uncertainty analysis of these selected parameters has been conducted to analyze the robustness of the model's predictions. Both single- objective and a multi-objective Optimal Control Models (OCM) have been developed by coupling SWAT with evolutionary algorithms, optimizing types, sizes, and locations of structural BMPs to achieve the desired level of treatment goals (the reduction of sediment and nutrient yields) at the watershed outlet. The single-objective OCM optimizes BMPs to a user-defined level of the treatment goals while the multi-objective OCM simultaneously optimizes BMPs for various degrees of treatment goals. The state-of-the-art multi-objective evolutionary algorithm that has been used in the study is the Non-Dominated Sorting Genetic Algorithm (NSGA-II). In addition, the single-objective OCM is applied to control increased sediment yield due to projected future climate scenarios. In conclusion, this research has developed methodologies that can cost-effectively improve water quality goals in agricultural watersheds by integrating a contemporary hydrological model with evolutionary algorithms.

The influence of the Tragedy of the Commons (Hardin, 1968) polarizes policy on common property resources into bimodal prescriptions--the state on the one hand and the market on the other. This study of community-based watershed management (CBWM) in Northern Thailand examines local institutions as an alternative to solve free rider problems in the commons. Four different communities--Ban Luang, Silalaeng, Thung Khao Hang, and Ban Pae--were selected for study. Field data was collected by participant observation, interview, and household survey. It was found that community-based watershed management originated from the need for water of the lowland rice farmers. This dependence on watersheds for a sustainable livelihood brought the peasants together to form CBWM institutions to regulate joint use, sustain yields, and exclude non-members. The emergence and continued strength of a CBWM system is closely associated with variables such as a small watershed, a small number of clearly-defined users, clearly-demarcated watershed boundaries, close proximity of the watershed to the village, moderately scarce watershed resources, and charismatic leaders. The definite geographical and social units of village community, dyadic relationships, and traditional reciprocities, when reinforced by norms, beliefs, and operational rules, are the foundation for cooperation and compliance with the rules by the majority of resource users. The villagers were highly satisfied with the efficiency and equity in resource use under the common property regime, as they evaluate the outcomes in terms of sustainable livelihood security rather than for short-term benefit. Minimal conflicts between de facto rights defined by local institutions and de jure rights defined by laws are also critical to institutional stability and help secure government recognition in CBWM. The incorporation of local communities into the larger political economic system and the penetration of the market economy into the rural areas have changed traditional reciprocities based on dyadic relationships. Thus, community-based watershed management systems have evolved through the development of collectively-organized rules to govern the use of scarce watershed resources. Over time, the operational rules of CBWM have become formal institutions as the village community is transformed into a territorial organization, eventually integrated into the mainstream society. This study demonstrates that there is an alternative to solve problems of the commons beyond the state and the market. Local institutional arrangements have been successful in managing several watersheds as the commons in Northern Thailand. It is suggested that co-management in the watersheds between the state and local communities is feasible in Northern Thailand. One potential strategy is to legalize CBWM institutions and empower the local communities to be able to manage their local watersheds effectively. / Graduate

No description available.

Thesis (M.E.S.)--Evergreen State College, 2007. / "June, 2007." Title from title screen (viewed 6/3/2010). Includes bibliographical references (p. 45-50).

The practice of burning large acreages of forest lands in the West for the reduction of fuel hazards is currently accepted by certain land management agencies. Although these prescribed burns frequently accomplish their objectives, little attention has been given to the possible effects these have on watershed conditions. In Arizona, where the demand for water is increasing each year, and where large burning programs are in effect, the influences of burning on water infiltration into the soil is of particular importance. Literature on burning and infiltration relationships is inconclusive. Detrimental and beneficial effects to soils and infiltration capacities have been reported. During the summer of 1963, four sites were selected in the ponderosa pine region of east central Arizona. This study area was located five miles east of McNary on the Fort Apache Indian Reservation, where a large prescribed burning program has been underway since 1948. In July, a light burn and a heavy burn treatment, which approximated prescribed burning and wildfire conditions, respectively, were conducted on each of the four sites. Temperatures during treatments were measured with fusion pyrometers. Surface soil temperatures for the light burns did not exceed 200°F. Maximum temperatures at the soil surface for heavy burns ranged from 350°F. to 550°F. An infiltrometer plot, one by four feet in size, was installed in the center of each treatment area (unburned control, light burn, and heavy burn) on each site. A modified North Fork infiltrometer with constant head tank was utilized to conduct infiltration measurements. The twelve infiltrometer plots remained in place for 25 months, through two overwintering periods. Two infiltration runs were conducted on each plot in late summer,. 1963, and three series of runs were made in both the summers of 1964 and 1965. Infiltration curves were plotted for each run from runoff data programmed into a computer and incremental digital plotter. Infiltration capacity values were obtained directly from these curves. Light and heavy burns produced highly significant decreases in infiltration capacities immediately following burning. No statistically significant differences due to burning were detected between the burning treatments and controls during the second and third summers. It was concluded that the burning programs conducted in late fall on the Fort Apache Indian Reservation, when followed by an overwintering period with freezing and thawing conditions, cause no appreciable effect on watershed conditions. Additional results showed that nearly all the 96 infiltration curves plotted exhibited a pronounced dip after five to fifteen minutes of water application. Soil wettability or a resistance to wetting is felt to be an important factor in causing this depression; however, the extent and practical significance of this new phenomenon is uncertain. Increases in soil pH, carbon, and total nitrogen percentages for the surface two inches of soil were detected immediately following light and heavy burning treatments. These increases were still evident two years after treatment but to a lesser extent. A statistically significant increase in the bulk density of the surface one inch of soil, which was found immediately after burning, was not found after one overwintering period. Changes in the physical and chemical properties of the silt loam soils in the study area following burning were considered to be negligible.

A methodology is presented for evaluating timber clearing as a means for beneficially increasing water yields from forested watersheds. Stochastic models of temperature and precipitation are developed and used to generate long term synthetic records of rain, snow, snowmelt, and potential evaporation. A deterministic hydrologic watershed model transforms the synthetic climatic data into long term streamflow records reflecting the hydrologic effects of clearing selected percentages of watershed area, either on a permanent or rotational basis. The simulated streamflow regimes are then analyzed in relation to the impacted reservoir and water supply system. Evaluation categories discussed include timber and forage production, agricultural water supply, flooding, hydroelectric power production, and reservoir-based recreation. A 38.8 square mile watershed on the East Fork White River in east-central Arizona is used to illustrate the procedures developed in this study. Vegetation management alternatives modeled are permanent conversion of 0, 20, 33, 50, 67, and 100 percent of the watershed area, as well as periodic harvesting, with subsequent timber regrowth, of 20, 33, and 50 percent of the watershed area. A hypothetical reservoir system serves as the basis for evaluating a 250 year simulated streamflow record induced by each management option. All conversion activities result in increased streamflow, better ability to meet water demands, greater recreational activity, and more power production. However, potential for flood damage and wasted reservoir releases also increase. Depending on specific management objectives, the ultimate choice lies within the 20 to 50 percent range of permanent conversion activities.

Fluvial systems and their associated deposits host globally important mineral deposits, water reserves and hydrocarbons. Crucial to the extraction of these resources is an understanding of heterogeneity distribution within deposits of fluvial systems. To constrain and predict heterogeneity distribution within fluvial deposits, outcrop data together with lidar and drone derived virtual outcrop models have been collected from the Salt Wash Distributive Fluvial System (DFS) in Utah and Colorado. The study records an analysis of sedimentary architecture, facies distribution and intra-channel heterogeneity of five study sites within the proximal, medial and distal reaches of the Salt Wash DFS. Specifically the fluvial style, lateral variability of fluvial architecture, intrachannel and overbank ratio, grainsize, channel body and storey width:thickness ratios and intrachannel heterolthics at outcrops considered representative of the proximal, medial and distal portions of a DFS have been documented. Data from the study sites have been used to generate 3D reservoir models. The models have been subject to flow simulation to better understand the significance of hetergenity variability within fluvial reservoirs at an 'inter-well' scale (approximatley 0.1 km2). An indepth workflow and methodology for measuring and describing DFS channel bodies and for the construction of a reservior flow simulation model from outcrop derived data are presented here. Data collection has involved mapping and measuring; palaeocurrents, barscale accretion surfaces, storey dimensions, channel body dimensions, facies and intrachannel heterolithics. Results show clear trends within channel channel bodies and associated deposits such as, intra channel heterogenity channel body percentage, channel body grain size, storey/channel body width thickness; which can be predicted within a distributive fluvial system context, ultimately leading to better subsurface interpretation with smaller datasets. This field based study of the Salt Wash DFS, coupled with virtual outcrop models has provided a quantitive analys's of channel body architectures and facies distributions. Additionally, field work conducted on point bar deposits now illustrates the limitations of 2D outcrops when attempting to describe meandering or braided fluvial deposits and why this may have resulted in gross underestimation of meanderbelt deposits in the fluvial rock record.

Made available in DSpace on 2014-06-11T19:31:01Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 0 Previous issue date: 2012-03-02Bitstream added on 2014-06-13T21:01:52Z : No. of bitstreams: 1 abdala_vl_dr_jabo.pdf: 544883 bytes, checksum: c2bcb7072b3378b0b85fd5c48c5fb727 (MD5) / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES) / O manejo de bacias hidrográficas é uma forma de analisar e monitorar o ambiente como um sistema de causa e consequências na exploração dos recursos naturais. Esta pesquisa teve por objetivo diagnosticar o recurso hídrico do rio Uberaba, como subsídio para a gestão das áreas de conflito ambiental. Com extensão de 2.419,04 km2 e perímetro de 308,04 km, abrange os municípios de Uberaba, Veríssimo, Conceição das Alagoas, Planura e uma pequena porção de Campo Florido. Considerando as características do rio Uberaba e o uso e ocupação do solo, dividiu-se em 5 (cinco) áreas distintas, no qual foram coletadas amostras de água. A partir da aplicação diagnóstica das variáveis físicas conservacionistas identificaram-se as áreas de conflito no rio e em seu entorno. Dentre as análises dos parâmetros hidrológicos da água, os que apresentaram resultado significativo quanto aos conflitos de uso do solo foram: o potencial hidrogeniônico (pH), oxigênio dissolvido (OD), potencial de oxirredução (ORP), condutividade elétrica, temperatura, alcalinidade e turbidez. O principal uso do solo na microbacia foi observado à ocupação com pastagem, seguido de florestamento e agricultura intensiva com as seguintes culturas: milho, soja e cana de açúcar / The watershed management is a way to analyze and monitor the environment as a system of causes and consequences of the exploitation of natural resources. This study aimed to diagnose the Uberaba River water resource, as a subsidy for management of areas of environmental conflict. The extension is about 2419.04 km2 and a perimeter of 308.04 km, covering the municipalities of Uberaba, Verissimo, Conceição das Alagoas, Planura and a small portion of Campo Florido. Considering the characteristics of the Uberaba river and the land use and occupation, the river has been divided into five (5) distinct areas in which water samples were collected. From the diagnostic application of the physical variables conservationists, it have been identified the areas of conflict in the river and its surroundings. Among the analyzes of the hydrological parameters of the water, which had significant results regard to conflicts of land use were the hydrogen potential (pH), dissolved oxygen (DO), potential redox (ORP), electrical conductivity, temperature, alkalinity and turbidity. The main land use in the watershed was observed to occupy pasture, followed by forestry and intensive agriculture with the following crops: corn, soybeans and sugar cane

Thesis (M.S.) -- University of Tennessee, Knoxville, 2006. / Title from title page screen (viewed on Feb. 7, 2007). Thesis advisor: Ernest Bazen. Vita. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--West Virginia University, 2002. / Title from document title page. Document formatted into pages; contains xi, 158 p. : ill. (some col.), col. map. Vita. Includes abstract. Includes bibliographical references (p. 126-132).